English edit

Etymology edit

bipolar +‎ -ism

Noun edit

bipolarism (countable and uncountable, plural bipolarisms)

  1. (politics) The characterization and practice of politics as the struggle and balance between left-wing and right-wing powers or ideologies.
    • 2004, Ellen Grigsby, Analyzing Politics, →ISBN, page 250:
      Political scientists and international observers debated whether the international system had become unipolar (with the United States as the sole superpower) or multipolar (with competing economic and military powers represented by the United States, China, Europe, and perhaps other countries and regions, depending on the political scientist consulted) in the aftermath of bipolarism.
    • 2009, Marco Rimanelli, The A to Z of NATO and Other International Security Organizations, →ISBN:
      East–West bipolarism is also associated with the “zero-sum” game (“my gain your loss”) of political-military rebalancing through military interventions or subversions in any Third World area where the adversary makes fresh inroads.
    • 2011, Elisabetta Gualmini, Eleonora Pasotti, Much Ado About Nothing?, →ISBN, page 106:
      To give credibility to its separation from the PD, the ApI had to declare bipolarism a failure and once again stress the usefulness, in the present situation in Italy, of a centrist, reforming party—one whose strength relies on concrete proposals and not on ideological radicalism.
    • 2014, James Ker-Lindsay, Resolving Cyprus: New Approaches to Conflict Resolution, →ISBN, page 52:
      One of the most prominent features of Cypriot party politics is the one which is also systemic at the party system level: bipolarism – the deep social, ideological and political division between right and left.
    • 2016, Susannah Verney, Anna Bosco, Protest Elections and Challenger Parties, →ISBN:
      Born after the end of the First Republic (1948–92), bipolarism had gone through different phases, but never faded away.

Translations edit